Mollah, 65, was found guilty of crimes during the nation's war of independence against Pakistan in 1971. The government says Pakistani soldiers, aided by local collaborators, killed 3 million people and raped 200,000 women during the nine-month war.

He's the first person executed after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina formed a special tribunal in 2010 to try people suspected of crimes during the war. Most of the defendants are opposition members.

Mollah's party says the trials are an attempt to weaken the opposition and eliminate Islamic parties. Authorities have denied the allegation.

His execution had been placed on hold Tuesday night just before he originally was to have been put to death. The Supreme Court rejected his final appeal Thursday.

Jamaat-e-Islami, an ally of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, had warned of “dire consequences” if he were executed.

Security was tight around the jail in Dhaka where he was hanged. Extra police were deployed in the capital.

Earlier Thursday, party activists clashed with police, torched or smashed vehicles and exploded homemade bombs in three other major cities — Chittagong, Sylhet and Rajshahi, TV stations reported.

Scores of people were injured in the latest violence to hit the South Asian country, which has seen weeks of escalating tension as it struggles to overcome extreme poverty and rancorous politics.

Security officials opened fire to disperse opposition activists in eastern Bangladesh, leaving at least three people dead and 15 others wounded, a newspaper reported.

The violence broke out in Laxmipur district, 60 miles east of Dhaka, during a nationwide opposition blockade after elite security forces raided and searched the home of an opposition leader, the report said.

The execution complicates an already critical political situation in Bangladesh, where the opposition has carried out violent protests for weeks demanding an independent caretaker government to oversee the election set for Jan. 5.